Day 3 A brief stop at Lava Tower before sleeping at Barranco Camp…Reunion Time!

I awoke feeling quite well rested and made sure to layer on the sunscreen for another hot day in the sun. The group was thrilled that we would be reunited with our fellow climbers later that day. One of the Regulators, Jim, especially was for soon enough he and his love, Bonnie would see each other. Just a brief tid-bit on Jim and Bonnie: both of these amazing people are cancer survivors and met through the JOI climb. Shortly following the climb (we would learn), Jim would ask his Trail Angel to marry him. It was a beautiful love story and continues to be.*

Anyway, the clouds and fog chased us up the hills and through the valleys as we made our way to our friends.

Getting closer to Kili!

And fog sets in

Taking a brief water/sunscreen break…hanging with the guides!

We reunited with our friends around lunch time, then some of the crew, myself included, headed to Lava Tower, which would take us to the highest point of elevation to date. (Roughly 15000). The climb there and back was exquisite, the fog remained with us, at times clearing so we could see more of Kilimanjaro’s expansive landscape. As we headed back to camp, we were met briefly with some hail and slick rocks. Thankfully we all managed to stay upright. We knew we’d have an incredibly difficult day tomorrow, for we’d be climbing Barranco wall.

Reunited and it feels so good…finally we meet our friends!

We’ve seen them!

Jim and Tom

Bonnie and Jim!

Rick holding up a rock

The climb to Lava Tower begins…

Chris leading the way

Just arrived and resting @ Lava: Rick, Jack, & Dave

Calvin

Jack @ Lava

Group Shot!

We survived the hail!

Chris at Barranco Camp

*Jim and Bonnie were married later in 2008 with most of us JOI folks in attendance. I wrote a song for them, “Trail Angel,” which was performed at their wedding as a gift from the JOI family!